Meet The McKinneys

My mom and I recently made a trip to South Georgia together under some pretty awful circumstances. My Great Aunt Katie passed away. The trip gave me and my mom a chance to connect and talk a while. The trip also gave us the chance to see her childhood town because that is where my Aunt Katie was buried.

Ray City, Georgia is not a big place. To give you an idea of the “economic development” in that area let me just say this. Growing up I remember passing through there and it used to have a flashing caution light. When we visited this past Thursday, I don’t remember seeing one. There is now a four-way stop. The caution light could be a figment of my childhood imagination because it’s been a long time since my last visit.

Here is a collection of pictures from our trip. Not real sure the tell a story to anyone but my mother and me.

The two headstones are pictures I snapped when we visited my Granny’s grave and my Grandpa’s grave on the way. They are buried at Riverside Baptist Church off of highway 135.

The rotting wood pictures are from my mom’s old middle school, Ray City Middle School “The Home of the Beavers”.

I did see my mom’s childhood home and the place where her stepfather’s service station and cafe. It was right behind the house they lived in.

The town is an amazing testament to the 1950′s. You almost feel like you are driving through black and white photos because nothing has changed since then. Well, nothing has changed except as the buildings get older no one seems to repair them.

The graveside service was at the First Baptist Church of Ray City. There are some headstones from God knows when that I took a picture of too. I took a picture because the spellings were so off that they caught my attention. “Willem and Loes Kirkland” . Notice the direction of the “N’s” and the spelling of William and Louise.

Great trip with my mom. We had a lot of great conversation. (especially when we drove 15 miles away to eat at a Sonic).